Sunday, October 24, 2010

What Happened to Singing

Check out most music programs at public middle and high schools and you will hardly find one that teaches choral music. In my own community, solo work or sing-a-long with cd accompaniment is the norm (and the singing is melody only). Our own parish purchased tons of sacred music from a school that was confident none of it would be used there again. It is not that people do not like to sing -- they sing all the time. All ages know the words and melodies of their favorite songs and sing with radio or mp3 player or cd all the time. Why then has choral singing seemingly disappeared from the public school system?

I am sad to say that most of the Lutheran parishes around me (even in a very wide radius) have no regular choir and not a few have seasonal or festival choirs for the high and holy days. When I look at the ages of the choir members in my own parish, too many of them are on the other side of age 50 and not enough of them are on the underside of age 30. Part of this is due to the fact that singing in parts is alien to many of those under age 30. They have to learn this in order to sing in the parish choir (not that it cannot be learned -- it can and I heartily encourage folks who have never sung in parts before to give it a try). Part of it is due to the fact that churches have abandoned so called "traditional" worship in favor of praise bands where everyone is a soloist and everyone sings melody. Plus the miniature microphones that flow out of the ear toward the mouth are just too cool for words.

Choral music is a particularly Lutheran domain. We have the giants among the field of composers (Bach, Schutz, Praetorius, etc) as well as great representation among the newer composers (Schalk always comes to mind). I have often spoken of the need for a sound track to match our piety to our confession and choral music is one particular area where Lutheran piety is well-expressed. My own day begins with choral music for an hour or two in the early moments of the morning before everything else steals the day away. I feel the lack when this time is lost to me.

So I would encourage all those singers out there to join your parish choir. I would also encourage folks to purchase some cds of choral music and listen to them. I enjoy every Sunday morning at 5 am listening to Sing for Joy in which the lessons of the day are presented from a musical (choral) perspective. This is not a matter of a lost art being recovered or even an aesthetic appeal but a call to remember why God gave us this things called music, why He equipped our voices to sing, and what glory there is when His name is raised in choral song. No, I could not imagine liturgical life without music, without hymns, and without choral song.

All the more reason to encourage choirs of children as young as 3-5 and up within our parishes.

Also a good place to plug Lutheran Summer Music Program - a yearly program for high school aged youth interested in both vocal and instrumental music. This is an outstanding pan-Lutheran program which encourages growth in both music and spirituality.

Many public schools have been makingcut backs in the fine arts due tobudget shortages. In some suburbanschool systems this has not been necessary and high school choirs still exist. In the Midwest it is not unusual to see show choirs fromvarious schools compete at well-attended festivals for trophies inboth the Fall and Spring. There are some talented directors here.

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This is the Means of Grace Window that is above the altar of Grace Lutheran Church where I serve. It reminds us of the keys (confession and absolution), the wheat(the bread which is the Body of Christ), the cup (which is His Blood), the Word (Scripture), and the Pastoral Office (the red stole). In this one wonderful window we see the treasures of the Church in the Word and Sacraments and I love that it is available for all to see. I realize that this image has been stolen all over the internet but it is a real window, a copyrighted image, belonging to Grace Lutheran Church, Clarksville, Tennessee, which has kindly allowed my use of it...

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I have been a Lutheran Pastor for more than 37 years, serving in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, and the Pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Clarksville, TN, in my 25th year here. I have a lot of thoughts (obviously not all of equal weight or importance) and this place is where you meet some of those meandering thoughts from this pastoral mind.

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